Posted: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 1:25 PM | 15 comments |
 

U.S. Soccer accepts Philadelphia's World Cup bid proposal
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The U.S. Soccer Federation whittled its list of potential World Cup cities from 38 down to 27 this afternoon, and Philadelphia made the cut.

Among the notable markets that did not make it were Columbus, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. Salt Lake City came as a surprise to me because of Sunil Gulati's statement about wanting to have games in all four time zones. This leaves Denver as the only Mountain Time city in the bid process, though Phoenix observes Mountain Time in the winter.

It's a little bit interesting that Cleveland is the only Ohio city left, as Cincinnati also was eliminated at this stage. Cleveland is the biggest market in the state, but Columbus has the MLS team and the larger stadium.

The other eliminated markets were Cincinnati; Birmingham, Ala.; Fayetteville, Ark.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Minneapolis; and San Antonio.

I thought Minneapolis stood a chance on account of the new Vikings' stadium, which is outdoors. It's also probably a few degrees cooler there in July than it is in Birmingham.

Below is the list of cities and stadiums that made the cut in this round, in alphabetical order. You'll notice that the listed capacity of Lincoln Financial Field is 67,594. I've seen it listed as 68,532 on a number of occasions, but the stadium's official website uses the smaller number.

So it's not a reflection of what the capacity would be if seats get knocked out to install a wider playing surface.
Market
Stadium
Capacity
Atlanta, Ga. Georgia Dome 71,250
Baltimore, Md. M&T Bank Stadium 71,008
Boston, Mass. (Foxborough) Gillette Stadium 71.693
Charlotte, N.C. Bank of America Stadium 73,778
Chicago, Ill. Soldier Field 61,000
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Browns Stadium 72,000
Dallas, Texas Cotton Bowl 89,000
Dallas, Texas (Arlington) Cowboys Stadium 100,000
Denver, Colo. INVESCO Field at Mile High 76,125
Detroit, Mich. Ford Field 67,188
Detroit, Mich. (Ann Arbor) Michigan Stadium 100,000
Houston, Texas Reliant Stadium 71,500
Indianapolis, Ind. Lucas Oil Stadium 64,200
Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville Municipal Stadium 82,000
Kansas City, Mo. Arrowhead Stadium 77,000
Los Angeles, Calif. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 93,607
Los Angeles, Calif. (Pasadena) Rose Bowl 92,000
Miami, Fla. (Miami Gardens) Land Shark Stadium 75,540
Nashville, Tenn. LP Field 69,143
New York/N.J. (East Rutherford) New Meadowlands Stadium 82,000
Oakland, Calif. Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum 63,026
Orlando, Fla. Florida Citrus Bowl 65,616
Philadelphia, Pa. Lincoln Financial Field 67,594
Phoenix, Ariz. (Glendale) University of Phoenix Stadium 71,000
San Diego, Calif. Qualcomm Stadium 70,500
San Francisco, Calif. (Palo Alto) Stanford Stadium 50,500
Seattle, Wash. Qwest Field 67,000
Seattle, Wash. Husky Stadium 72,500
St. Louis, Mo. Edward Jones Dome 67,268
Tampa, Fla. Raymond James Stadium 65,856
Washington, D.C. RFK Stadium 45,600
Washington. D.C. (Landover, Md.) FedEx Field 91,704
Posted by Jonathan Tannenwald @ 1:25 PM  Permalink | File Under: Soccer | 15 comments
15
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:02 PM, 08/20/2009
    How are they going to work out the Linc's field issues. The playing surface is several yards too narrow at the ends, and would need either a FIFA waiver, like Giants stadium had in 94, or minor modification, removing the first few rows from some of the corner sections.
    — Pelti
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:03 PM, 08/20/2009
    How many are expected to be selected as sites ?
    — willll
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:41 PM, 08/20/2009
    Maybe I am missing something but why wouldn't the Philly Union's stadium be used instead? Is it too small?
    — Mr. Pennsylvania
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:24 PM, 08/20/2009
    The Union's and the Columbus Crew stadiums are too small. They are both about 20,000. 40,000 is about the smallest number for a World Cup Stadium. I imagine Columbus was proposing OSU's stadium which would be large enough. But they want the stadium's as big as possible. I'd be surprised if Philly gets picked because Washington and New York are pretty much locks.
    — AreaMan
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:54 PM, 08/20/2009
    Philly will get picked based on size of population and reputation as a world class city. yeah, i said it.
    — lefty1117
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:28 PM, 08/20/2009
    willll, I think the final bid package will have 12 to 15 venues in it. extremestam, I agree about RFK but Miami might be too big a market to ignore. It also might be too hot weather to play in. How the south gets treated will be one of the big questions going forward.
    — Jonathan Tannenwald
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:30 PM, 08/20/2009
    I think they can cross off JFK Stadium and the Polo Grounds.
    — Todd V
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:18 PM, 08/20/2009
    attaboy lefty.....think big not small town.......soccer is not fun but world cup is ok and good for Philly image...
    — ILUVPHILLYCITYOFLOSERS
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:35 PM, 08/20/2009
    You have to do NYC, Dallas (proximity to Mexican/Central American population), and LA. Philly has a solid soccer culture, but it's so close to New York it would be hard to justify it over a city in Florida or the midwest
    — ConverseB24
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:03 AM, 08/22/2009
    converse hits it. philly remains longshot because of the newer meadowlands stadium and proximity to metro area of 8 million.
    — bryanarmengraham
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:00 AM, 08/22/2009
    I'd hit up games all along the north east. That would be such an exciting summer.
    — jeff518
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:11 PM, 08/24/2009
    Philly both benefits and gets hurt by its proximity. There is a desire to spread the games, but then again you do have more people within 2 hours than anywhere else in the USA. Also has excellent intl and local transportation for events such as this. With 18 teams, Philly will get the nod because you can elminate 9 off the bat: Baltimore, Cleveland, Indy, Jacksonville, KC, Nashville, Oakland, Orlando, St Louis.
    — eres
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:37 PM, 08/25/2009
    C'mon Philly! Does anyone know how to get in touch with those on the (philly) bid committee? I experienced WC game days in Kaiserslautern, Munich and Nurenburg in 2006 and would love to offer some suggestions for game day Fanzone experience
    — soccerdad1150
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:45 PM, 09/08/2009
    FORZA ITALIA
    — Crosbysucks


15 comments
About Jonathan Tannenwald
I fell in love with the Big 5 at first sight upon moving to Philadelphia in 2002. At various points in my journalistic career, I've covered all six of the region's Division I teams. During that time, I've eaten many soft pretzels from the Palestra's concession stands, which is how this blog got its name.

I write primarily about the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League, but I also cover the other basketball and football teams across the city from time to time. In the spring, you'll find coverage of the Penn Relays here.

In addition to all of that, I write Philly.com's soccer blog, The Goalkeeper.

You can contact me by email by clicking here.

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